Pages

Posts

I was very excited this past year for the release of Civilization VI. It really is a great game, but I found myself just unable to finish the game. I just couldn't focus as well. I'm finding this a lot as I get a little older. Or perhaps it is the new social media age smartphone age we live in? I don't know.

I look back at some of the games I loved in the past. I loved the Baldur's Gate RPG series. I can't even begin to count the number of hours I spend on Baldur's Gate 2 in University. I'm pretty sure I crawled through every nook and cranny and literally hours and hours on some battles. I tried to play it recently, I could barely pass the first few areas. Just knowing the vast tedium that lay ahead of me killed my anticipation in the game.

Let's not even get into reading. I used to read a lot. Everything from non-fiction to science fiction. I read everything. I can't see myself reading a whole novel start to finish these days. I used to be able to…

I had an interesting discussion the other day concerning the rise of the 'alt-right'. Basically white supremism of some kind. It gets associated with Nazis, Mein Kemph, and all the regular white hate people are used to comdemning.

We can all imagine what they say that is classified as hate in its various forms

Jews are evilWhite people need to stick togetherWhite people need to be on top of societyHomosexuality is wrongSociety would be better of if everyone was white
It got me thinking. In our current anti-hate culture, what happens to religious texts? It was actually a genuine curiosity. Like people sue over everything these days, so someone must have seen what happens.

I was reading this article and it is something I've felt a lot of my life. Long before I left religion.
The vast majority of religious people I've met are simply not even very 'moral' people.
Why are religious people less moral? One factor is a psychological
phenomenon known as 'moral licensing': a person will justify doing
something bad or immoral – like being racist – because they've already
done something 'good', such as praying. "It's an unconscious bias,"
Decety explains. "They don't even see that's not compatible with what
they've been learning in church."
I was born in South Africa and I have a lot that fire in me in terms of justice. It stayed with me throughout my life. Here's the strange thing. A lot of Muslims for example latch onto the phrase 'social justice'. I suppose due to history or colonialism, they …

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-perils-of-empathy-1480689513
In moral and political debates, our positions often reflect our choice
of whom to empathize with. We might feel empathy with minorities abused
and killed by law enforcement—or with the police themselves, whose lives
are often in peril. With minority students who can’t get into
college—or with white students turned away even though they have better
grades. Do you empathize with the mother of a toddler who shoots himself
with a handgun? Or with a woman who is raped because she is forbidden
to buy a gun to defend herself? With the Syrian refugee who just wants
to start a new life, or the American who loses his job to an immigrant?
In contrast to empathy, compassion does not mean sharing the suffering
of the other: rather, it is characterized by feelings of warmth, concern
and care for the other, as well as a strong motivation to improve the
other’s well-being. Compassion is feeling for and not feeling with the
other…